A/N: Hi! It's been a while. School and sleep deprivation got in the way but I finally finished another chapter. I was very disheartened by the low response I got for the last chapter, so I had no motivation to continue. But I decided I still owed it to the few who actually DID review so here it is :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. If I did Edward would be trying to persuade me to sleep instead of writing so late at night…

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Chapter 7: Cookies or Catastrophes?

BPOV

"Mmmm………"

I was awakened at sunrise to the most delicious aroma. Apart from Edward's scent, that is. Edward was lying on the bed next to me, his arms wrapped around me like a protective but gentle cage as I snuggled into his cold shoulder. He waited for my brain to fully shake off its sleepy thought mode. When it did, though, I realized what the smell cane from.

Food. Human food, not vampire.

"Good morning, love".

"Morning. Um…Edward? Why do I smell human food downstairs when I'm here and you're not cooking? Did someone come while I was sleeping? Or maybe…Am I dreaming?"

Edward chuckled, sending vibrations through his arm to my head resting on it.

"No, my dear Bella. You are not dreaming. How come I always have to assure you of this? Or is it that you have a habit of dreaming while your eyes are wide open? " I ignored his comment. It was not insulting coming from him while his hypnotic topaz eyed were locked on mine. And besides, that was not the answer to my question. He read my confusion and the impatience in my eyes.

"Maybe you'd like to see for yourself. It is pretty unusual, given the circumstances."

He flashed a wide grin. Circumstances. What an interesting way to put it, the fact that they were all vampires. I was very intrigued now, though. I leapt up from the bed, a bit unbalanced due to the quick movement. Luckily, Edward steadied me before I could fall. He led me down the stairs to the kitchen, where the smell intensified drastically. The scene that met me would not have been out of the ordinary in any other house, or if it were a stranger to the family's secret who was witnessing it. To me, though, it was just strange.

Esme and Alice were bustling around the kitchen. Both were a sight to behold. Flour clung to their hair and clothes, including new snowflake-print aprons tied around them. Esme was mixing something at a quick human pace in a large silver bow, a peaceful expression on her face. Alice's hands were filled with little packets of sprinkles in all imaginable colors, at least five different types of chocolate and an icing bag. She looked as excited as if she were shopping. The kitchen counter was a mess of raw ingredients. What on earth were they doing? Alice dropped everything in her hands and ran over to me as soon as I reached the doorway.

" Hi Bella. It's a little early for you to be awake, isn't it? We wanted to be finished before you came down."

"Finished with what, exactly?"

"We're baking Christmas cookies!"

Oh. I could smell it a lot better now, so I could place the scent.

"Homemade gingerbread cookies? That's my favorite!"

I remembered Christmas spent with my mother when I was a child. We used to bake for the entire day before Christmas. My favorite part was decorating the gingerbread cookies.

"We found another Christmas tradition to do, but it doesn't make sense unless you try out the food because it would taste horrible to us anyway. One batch is almost finished. Why don't you wait another five minutes and then come back?"

I did as I was told; Edward led me to the couch in the living room. I rested my head in his lap as he played with tendrils of my hair. I was now beginning to feel the effects of waking up so early. I drifted off to sleep almost immediately. However, I was awakened soon after to some commotion in the kitchen. I went to investigate.

"Edward, what's going on?"

He didn't have to answer, though. We had entered the kitchen and the cause of all the fuss was apparent. Esme's cookies were burnt to a crisp. The blackened shapes rested in the pan, letting out dark steam.

"What happened in here?

From what I could understand of the chatter, the oven was simply set to a much higher temperature than necessary. Esme was staring at her attempt at baking, muttering sorrowfully.

"We're sorry, Bella. We'll try again."

" You don't have to do this. We could just co out and buy some. Besides, who needs cookies anyway?"

"Don't be absurd, Bella. We want to make them. And where's the fun in buying cookies? Now that we know what not to do, I'm positive that the next batch we make would come out much better"

They would hear nothing of my protests. They went back to work immediately, refusing to let me help them. Edward kept me company until I was called back for my role as cookie tester. I had to hand it to them, those cookies looked amazing. They weren't overdone by even a few minutes. I couldn't quite remember my mother's cookies smelling that way, though. They must've used a different recipe. Alice was impatient to know whether the cookies were a success or not.

"Come on, Bella. Taste it!"

I took one up just as the rest of Edward's siblings filed into the kitchen. I brought the cookie up to my mouth and bit off the gingerbread man's head ….

"Oh my goodness!"

I managed to get one sentence out before racing to the bathroom and spitting out what I had in my mouth. That was no cookie. It was a life threat. Edward followed me in and held my hair back, alarmed as I vomited over and over.

"Bella, are you okay?"

Edward looked on the verge of a panic attack. He waved his hand around frantically, trying to figure out how to make me feel better.

I groaned weakly in reply.

"I don't feel so well. Feels like food poisoning, although I don't think you would understand that at all. And I think I burnt my tongue. I'll be alright soon, so stop worrying."

He calmed a little, but the concerned look never left his face. I leaned against him, exhausted.

We went back to the kitchen a few minutes later to see Alice sitting cross-legged on the floor looking really confused. Esme just stood in the middle of the kitchen as still as a statue, face in her hands. She was clearly distraught; if she could've cried, she would.

She raised her head, took in my frail-looking form lifted in Edward's arms and let out a single dry sob.

"Bella, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make you sick. I was just trying to do a normal human Christmas thing like I used to, but I don't thing it went well. I have no idea what went wrong, though. It looked like it was supposed to. I'm really sorry, dear"

"Esme, I'm fine. It wasn't your fault. You don' t have to do these things to make the holiday any more special. I get to spend it here with my new family, and that's all I could ever ask for. You've been like a mother to me in many ways, and for that I'm truly grateful."

She beamed at my statement and I was glad I could lift her from her depressed state.

" I would like to know, however, what you did with those cookies. If you followed the recipe, the only thing that could have gone wrong would be the texture but something was definitely off".

I'm not sure what I ate could be classified as a cookie.

"I think we did everything according to the book. We did run out of sugar, though, but I found a bag in that cupboard that looked like sugar. And Alice added the eggs but she just told me that she thinks she forgot to remove the shell first."

That sounded a bit frightful to me, so I went to inspect the ingredients. I discovered that the milk was beginning to turn sour, they used pancake syrup instead of oil and to top it all off, their 'sugar' was actually salt! From the look of the bag, the cookie had enough salt to make a river have seawater. I told them this and their expression was horrifies when they heard of the mistakes they had made.

" Huh. I guess vampires can't cook, then. Blame it on the fact that we can't tell if the taste or smell is good or bad. I was hoping that by doing this, I could recall something from my past, but it was impossible. I can't remember the taste of human food or how it feels to stand in front of a stove to prepare something to eat. I can't even remember how it is to feel ill. I never even saw anybody as sick as you were before. This is all so new to me."

I felt sorry for her. Esme had vague memories to work with, but Alice had no clue about human food. Well, since they wanted to do all this for me, the least I could do was to help them after all their effort.

"Who's up for another try at cooking?"

"Um, Bella? Weren't you witness to the past two hours? I don't think it will make a difference. We still can't tell if it will taste good and we don't want to take the chance of making you sick again."

"Your sense of smell won't change, but this time I'll be in the kitchen, too.

"That sounds like a good idea. I'm in. Esme, are you willing to try again, or do you want to call it a day?"

"I'm in. Let's see if I still have a cooking hand."

That plan would've worked beautifully for cheering everyone up, but upon further examination, we discovered that most of the necessary ingredients were missing. In fact, the only edible things left in the house were marshmallows, sprinkles and cereal. Of all the days for the grocery to be closed, it was the one day I really needed to go. So much for that plan.

"I guess we can't bake anything after all. All we have is…wait. I have an idea! Did any of you ever roast marshmallows before?"

"Bella, what's Christmas-y about marshmallows?

Of course Alice didn't care about the fact that she couldn't eat them.

"Nothing, except the fact that the ones we have are shaped like Christmas trees and snowmen."

" Alright then. This will be fun. But hoe do you roast a marshmallow?"

Just then, Emmett burst into the kitchen, grinning wildly.

"Ooh! Did I hear marshmallow snowmen? Hey, try saying that fifty times fast!"

He proceeded to recite 'marshmallow snowmen' as fast as he could, jumping up and down as if he were skipping rope. By the time he was finished, my hands were over my ears.

"Are you done now?"

"No, unless I gat to roast some snow-vamps! Can I? Please, please, please?"

He was annoying me so much that I agreed just to get him to quiet down. After a few minutes of the news spreading through the house, roasting marshmallows became a family activity, even though the only one able to eat it was me.

Now. Everyone was lounging on plush cushions around the Cullen fireplace. The flames crackled merrily, casting a warm glow on the vampires; faces, I was pleased to see that the colors of the fire reflected on Edward's face made him look like ha was blushing. Everyone had wooden sticks in their hands, just like if we were camping. Marshmallows were passed around and then everyone looked to me for the next step. I couldn't believe they had never done this in their human life before.

I showed them what to do, sticking a snowman onto the stick and putting it over the flames. I almost dropped it, though, when Emmett jumped up from the floor, clutching his chest dramatically.

"Aargh! Bella, how can you be so cruel? You sent a stake through his heart!"

Huh? Emmett was such a goofball.

The rest of the bag was emptied in this manner, everyone cracking jokes and coming up with weird things to say. Edward was mostly silent, content to just sit with me on his lap and feed me his perfectly roasted marshmallows. My clumsiest moment came when I laughed too hard and the flaming snowman on my stick went rolling on the floor, nearly setting the carpet on fire. I think that was the most fun I ever had just roasting marshmallows. The Cullens sure made things interesting around the house with their bizarre attempts at doing Christmas the human way. What on earth would they think of next?

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A/N: What would they think of next? I'm going to be mean and demand at least three reviews for the next chapter. :)

Please review! I need some motivation.

Next: Mistletoe comes back to haunt Edward…. Will he fall to his powerful leafy foe?

Review if you want the next chapter!